[A/N: My knowledge of London is vague and limited to a visit when I was seven, so if the way I described the surroundings doesn’t sound like Notting Hill/West London, my apologies!]

[Disclaimer: Teddy Lupin is JKR’s collection and I do not intend to suggest otherwise, as is the HP universe; my OC, however, is my creation. The three lines of lyrics halfway done there are from the song ‘Anyone Else But You’ by the Moldy Peaches. I simply like the song enough to write something around it and enter it in a challenge.]

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The stars that night reminded me ludicrously of a certain portrait in the Headmaster’s office.

Even as I registered this odd similarity my mind informed me that had completely and doubtlessly lost it. It being my mind, of course. Who in Merlin’s name noticed and compared stars to twinkling eyes, even if they did look extraordinarily similar? Nobody else I knew would ever do that, let alone while lying in the grass on a hilltop. But then again, I didn’t often do something ‘most people’ would.

I broke off in my thoughts, shifting slightly, getting up and attempting to look behind me. I didn’t need to do so to know the back of my shirt was soaked. A slight frown appeared on and then flitted past my features. Right after a storm was not the best time to be lying in the grass, however bloody scenic the place looked.

Sighing, I laid back down, half turning to look at the slender form stretched out next to me. She had her back to me; all I could see was her back and her brown hair let down – for once – and cascading down her back. She looked asleep and immediately my eyebrows shot up. Without hesitation I poked her on the shoulder, arranging my features into the best scowl I could. Moving slightly and muttering something inaudible was the extent of her reaction and I sniffed. I had been about to prod her again – this time harder – when she muttered something more obvious.

‘Stop poking me, you nut,’ she mumbled, her hand reaching out behind her to slap mine away. ‘You looked asleep,’ I replied, realizing only after a moment how that sounded. She, being the infuriating one who picks up on everything, turned around and glared at me. ‘And I suppose someone lying there looking peaceful just needs to be disturbed, Ted?’

‘Not just someone,’ I corrected, grinning. ‘It’s just you I love disturbing.’ She sighed, turning so that she was lying on her back instead of her side. ‘I’d have been happier if you’d have left off the ‘disturbing’ in that sentence,’ she said, shooting me a look. A sudden temptation to demand whether she was flirting with me took over momentarily, but I settled for smirking and following her example as she stared at the stars that so reminded me of Dumbledore. Damn! There I went again.

More to drag my mind away than anything else, I stretched upwards. ‘It’s just as well you weren’t sleeping,’ I informed Annette, running a hand through my hair, ‘what with you being the one who was pestering me to come here in the first – ’ She interrupted me, looking indignant. ‘I was not pestering you! I just said that it would make a better pastime than sitting at home and doing nothing.’ I arched an eyebrow.

‘We wouldn’t be doing nothing,’ I said, scoffing lightly under my breath. ‘If we’d been at my place Ginny would have probably ordered us to clean up the house.’ Pause. ‘Well, fine, that’s true… ’ She made a face and stuck her tongue out at me briefly, before turning again and comfortably laying back down.

I tucked my arms under my head and stared ahead, observing the landscape spread out in front of me, a vision that was ‘scenic’ by my own description. Our house, two storey as it was, was invisible in the sea of mankind and nothing but a tall sky scraper would have been able to be glaringly obvious in this scene. We didn’t have any obscenely tall sky scrapers in this little area, however, so we had to settle for the spire on the local church – it presented a homely look, the little steeple looking out from behind the mass of buildings.

Here is the church and here is the steeple,
We sure are cute for two ugly people,
I don’t see what anyone can see, in anyone else... but you.

Out of nowhere I fought a yawn, shifting again before pushing myself up on the elbows. Ann was still staring up at the stars, and she looked as though she was about to fall asleep soon enough, in spite of her previous assurances that she was quite wide awake. I stared at her for a few moments before realizing she was staring back at me as though she had never seen me before.

Why in Merlin’s name could I feel my cheeks getting hot? It probably had something to do with her staring at me with those terribly brown eyes of hers. Dropping back to my original position – again, since I was obviously one for unoriginality – I informed her of this preposterous calamity grumpily. She laughed and gave me an amused look. She turned over so she was lying on her stomach and her elbows were propping her up.

‘You’re just making excuses, Ted,’ she said, nodding as if she knew all. Which she probably did, but that’s not the point, is it? ‘You know you’re just annoyed because my eyes are so much prettier than yours.’ My eyebrows went up, almost as if to show her my eyes were every bit as pretty looking as hers, even though I doubted they were. ‘Not arguing with that,’ I said, returning her look with one of mine.

She changed her position – why were we being so oddly restless that night? – and finally settled, after a lot of moving, for resting her head on my shoulder. I yawned, sneaking a glance at my watch. Seven forty. We had just enough time to make it to the diner before I died of hunger, judging by the inner, so-far mercifully silent grumbling of my stomach. I glanced to my side and voiced my concern (that’s not the right word, but I don’t think anyone minds). ‘Hungry?’

‘Not in particular. Are you?’

‘Somewhat. Do you want to go now?’

‘All right. Let’s just take our time walking, I don’t fancy doing the dishes tonight and Mother is sure to ask me.’ I grinned. Ann’s mother was more often than not sure to ask someone or the other to do the dishes. I pushed myself up, pulling her up with me before threading my fingers through hers.

Looking up, I gave the stars a last glance, immediately recalling Dumbledore’s infernal twinkling eyes. I winced. Ann would probably murder me if I told her all I could do was compare the twinkling stars to Dumbledore’s twinkling blue eyes when she was around – scratch that, there’s no ‘probably’ about it, she would murder me.